Yip, Chris  

The class itself has to be a difficult one to teach, and it is difficult to stay awake in, but other than that it is a pretty simple class to pass. Professor Yip tries hard to make it funny and interesting, and sometimes does, but its still somewhat boring to just sit there and look at slides and listen to someone talk.

Between Yip and Denel, who split the 217 class, Yip was the better professor. That's not really saying much because they both had their faults. Memorizing the flash cards is the only real way to pass this class. Forget the lectures. Just read the internet printouts. THey say the same thing but without the stupid jokes and coughing.

Prof. Yip...where should I start. First off, I like Yip. Don't get me wrong when I complain about him further down. He just has some major flaws that actually affect your learning ability. To start off, he mumbles; A LOT. In fact, he always mumbles. I talked to him once after class and he was still mumbling. I couldn't understand half of what he was saying. It's even worse in class. Arch 217 is a very difficult class to teach. Its in the business rotunda, theres about 300 people (probably less, most people don't show up after the first day) and all they do is stand in front and lecture you with slides. Both Yip and Denel use the microphone to lecture except Yip has this wonderful ability to break the heinous thing. It will stop working and randomly start working again for less than a second. What does this result to? It means that since Yip doesn't immediately take the thing off or turn it off, for about 10-15 minutes or so you will not only barely hear him lecture but you will also get random syllables amplified by the mic. This makes it even harder to follow him. Not to mention extremely annoying. Secondly, probably because he mumbles, he has a sort of monotonous voice what will encourage sleep. Drink lots of coffee. Thirdly, its not anything wrong with him, but I thought I should mention it. Yip has this fascination with defication and the penis. Perhaps you may not hear it in 218 or 219, but in 217 its mostly about prehistory and anything before the Middle Ages. Several times, Yip pauses his lecture to point out things such as toilets, bathrooms and places to deficate. He makes a big deal of it almost. He also pointed out a few time symbolism of penises in ancient art. Its very amusing actually. And lastly, Yip likes to make a lot of jokes and sometimes only he seems to get them. Sometimes he would make a joke, and if no one laughed, he'd repeat the "punch line" again, usually to nervous chuckles. He tries though, and thats all that matters really. You'll probably end up laughing at his attempts more than his jokes. Overall, I gave him a B

Professor Yip is a pretty monotonous teacher who amuses himself with his own jokes. He covers a little of the material in lecture, but expects you to know a lot from the textbook which is outrageously long. There are two midterms, a project, and a final. The project was easy enough to get an A on, but the tests (multiple choice) were really difficult. He takes quotes from the book that you have to idenitfy and other facts, but he covers some of it in lecture too. Half of the tests are identifying slides so memorize those and their location and a little something about them too. Also maybe go ask him about the tests because I never did, I always went in not knowing what to expect the questions to be!

bring a pillow and a blanket

Yip is a nice person but is very boring. He begins the first 45 minutes of all of his lectures talking about what he is going to talk about in his lecture then he lectures on what he just talked about. He has a very monotone voice and the lights are dimmed in the class room so you will probably fall asleep. His tests are pretty easy if you stayed awake and didn't fall asleep in class but if your like everyone else you will sleep and be clueless on the exam material. I suggest taking a nap before class so you won't be tired and sleep during class.

Hope you like bad jokes.

He's a nice guy. Super funny. It's just a hard class. Memorize the slides and pray. You'll get through!! Yip at least provides some comic relief.. you can't help but like him.

This guy was something else...he likes to go off on a million tangents at once and you often find it very hard to distinguish between good notes and his random rambling. Overall the class is quite difficult. I would reccommend against this class for freshman just trying to fulfill a GE rquirement

He mumbled, went over time, confused himself with his weird tangents, and sometimes didnt even get to all of the material in the lecture outlines. I had the class that he co-taught with Choi, and I dreaded the classes Yip taught. It was so hard not to just sleep through them. He confused himself on names and dates, which in turn confused us! He isnt very clear, and half the time we couldnt even understand him because he mumbled so bad. If you can take someone besides Yip, I would recommend it!

Yip is a funny man we can say the least, but if you wnat to suck up to him sit in the front and laught like there is no tomorrow at his sickening jokes about sex in ancient history, although it does you no good to laught cuz he doesn't know who you are, it provides for a fun lecture ps DON is the man

First of all, it's important to mention this class was tag-team taught by both Yip and Choi. Although it seems as though Yip has a better understanding of the subject matter, Choi is an infinitely more interesting and engaging lecturer. 2 hours of listening to Yip can be difficult and I recommend drinking coffee beforehand and sitting in the front to avoid falling asleep. The tests are difficult, although fair. I would compare it to a U.S. History class where during a test you are shown a random picture of any U.S. president and then you are asked a question - his name, birthday, hometown, political party, and/or any significant facts about his years in office... and believe me, you'll be shown more buildings than there were presidents! Be prepared to study. Unfortunately, I looks like Yip and Choi are the only ones who teach the class... and you can't choose WHO you take it from. They decide.

Should I shoot myself now or later? This class was TERRIBLE!!! Well let me rephrase that - Yip was terrible. First of all he wouldnt stop coughing every 4 minutes and going off topic about random stuff. I probably half-slept through most of this class just because focusing on the material was close to impossible - and I like history! I'm just dreading taking 2 more quarters of arch history and suffering through more tests. Oh and the final was horrendous!

DO NOT TAKE HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!AVOID HIM AT ALL COSTS. IF YOU ARE ENGINEER, DONOT TAKE THIS CLASS. YOU WILL BE IN A ROOM FULL OF ARCH MAJORS, NOT EXACTLY THE BEST PLACE TO BE. STUPID CLASS, STUPID TEACHERS, STUPID TA'S. EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS CLASS IS STUPID!! USELESS INFORMATION. YOU WILL NEVER USE THIS CRAP IN YOUR LIFE.

Ok, first of all, do not take this as a general ed class!! It was the only class I could fit in my schedule and so i took it for a C3 requiremet. Worst mistake of my life!! You are surrounded by Arch students who actually care and you will feel like a stupid piece of shit! I got a D, basically because I didnt care anymore, but dont take this! Yip and Choi are allright, but really boring, and dont care about their students at all! Dont do it!

No matter what you are going to have Yip if you decide to take Choi's class. Yip is a little harder to understand. Choi is better, but they divide their classes in half, so you will see both of them half of the quarter. I don't know if ARCH 217 is any better or worse than 218 or 219. I had trouble in this class because the Greeks and Romans would have many temples for the same Gods but in different places. That got me at the beginning of the quarter. The only grades are two midterms, finals, and they ask maybe three questions during class that you have to answer for a couple insignificant points. 218 or 219 might be better since they are later on in human history where humans didn't name places the same but in different locations.

First of all, i did not choose this class and i would never had taken it ever. The school decided that they would test a new system and use the class of \'13 as the guinea pigs. The block scheduling sucks. Anyways, myself and the friends around me found the class remotely interesting and then towards the ends slightly painful. The reason being the ridiculously hard exams, that should be on what the buildings function was rather than which tribe (all with very similar spelling) built it. I could be wrong, if i had any remote interest in the subject matter i would have gotten a better grade. The professors are nice, my friends and i favored choi slightly more. yip was ok, but had a knack for throat clearing and laughing at information that was not supposed to be funny, but had an obvious enthusiasm for his subject. unless you are ready for memorization and printing out every single picture (you will need this for studying,) then i do not suggest this class. but if forced, just go along with it, and if youre super bored, tallying yips throat clears is fun, we got 53 in a 15 minute span one day. good luck : )

Yip knows his material. He clears his throat a lot, but if you can stick with it, his material is well presented. His exam questions are more straightforward and easier than Choi\'s. I liked this class, very interesting. The exams certainly require studying, don\'t plan to wing it. I would recommend this.

I couldn\'t help but laugh the first day I listened to Yip lecture. He literally clears his throat five times a minute. He is very hard to understand, and goes off on random tangents that have nothing to do with the things you\'ll see on the tests. Surprisingly, I really enjoyed the class because it was interesting, and luckily Choi co-teaches the class, making the material much more clear. Yip is a nice guy, but he is not the best teacher.

Yip is an extremely intelligent and educated man; however, with that being said, that does NOT mean he\'s a \"good\" teacher. His lectures are extremely difficult to sit through because they\'re so boring. He does clear his throat a lot; one time, my friends and I kept count, and he cleared it 194 times before the break (70 minutes had passed). It was annoying at first, but you get used to it, and then you realize that he probably has a medical condition..... Anyways, his questions on the test are easier, but that doesn\'t make up for the almost unbearable lectures. Yip and Choi tag team this class, so you\'re gonna get both.

This was the WORST decision in my life at Cal Poly thus far. Despite my legitimate attempts to study for these test, I could not pull off anything above a C. Lectures are impossible to sit through, Yip clears his throat every other word which is very distracting and goes on random tangents that have no value to ANYTHING in life. Ironically, I truly feel that I gained a lot of knowledge from taking this course, but the tests do a very poor job of reflecting that. Take any other class for a GE.

DON'T TAKE IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO. So boring if you're not in love with architecture, and a lot harder than it needed to be. Yip and Choi switch off teaching the class, (both suck) and in order to do well on the tests you have to know EVERY LITTLE RANDOM THING from the lectures. Your grade is based off of three tests. At the end of the quarter I had a 69% test average but with a luckily with a fat curve it gave me a B-. Just do yourself a favor and avoid this class.

If you are taking this as a GE because you need to fulfill some requirement...RUN AWAY! this is not a class you want to sit through if it isnt a requirement. I am currently sitting in this class and we have been on the same slide for 15 min...there are 30 total and 45 min. left. He basically sounds like he is reading a dry history book to you and in the end the stuff he says isnt on the tests. you basically have to take a visual screen shot of every slide in every lecture in order to pass his tests because he will choose the most random fact to test you on. the last test i took didnt even ask questions about the architecture...it just asked for random locations of random buildings that werent even part of the main ideas. Im an architect major and im not even learning about architecture. THIS CLASS IS A WASTE OF 4 HOURS EVERY WEEK.

First off, DO NOT take this class if you don't have to. I got block scheduled into this for my first quarter here. When I told my advisor she was shocked because it's usually taken by older students. This class was definitely a GPA killer. The lectures can be interesting but most of the time you just want to fall asleep. And the structure of the class was terrible. All the material is in lecture, there's no textbook which I think would have been really helpful. And his powerpoints have very little info on them, you have to kind of decipher what you should write down. The key to doing well on tests is memorizing the images on the powerpoints and their locations. Half of the exam is questions based off images. I learned that after getting a C on my first exam. But he curves everything so you'll do better than you think.

Professor Yip is good at presenting the material that the class is on. The lectures were enjoyable and he seemed to try to keep people engaged. Class isn't too difficult and I saw it as an easy class. He puts the lecture slides online and if you take good notes this allows you all you need to know for test. I went over all slide shows every weekend and dead week to do well the entire quarter.

Don't bother with the history lesson, Dr. Yip just wants you to memorize pictures and locations. Sure, he'll go over architectural forms and the motivations behind them with a connection to the culture of the time, but if his midterms are any indication of what is important, these overarching themes are definitely not. Unless you like differentiating between pictures of almost identical temples with only grass as a guide, take this class. Furthermore, the incessant coughing between sentences, during sentences, and during breaks is almost unbearable. How one continues to speak when the body does not want to is beyond me. Architecture students probably killed the game. They love columns.

Take this class if you want to memorize hundreds of images of buildings and floor plans !! Don't take this if you're looking for a simple GE that requires minimal effort. Prof. Yip seems like a nice guy and lectures can be interesting but the class really comes down to your ability to memorize ancient buildings and floor plans. A class / tests shouldn't be all about what info you can memorize and spit out on a test, and that's all this is.

Took this class as an elective because I always want 16 units per quarter. Read the reviews at first and though it was bullshit and that architecture history seems interesting. Boy was I wrong. Yip is an okay professor. His lectures are literally just reviews of his Power Point slides. Just restates what's on them with some occasional dad level jokes. Only thing keeping attendance at times is the possibility of extra credit and apparently quizzes once in awhile (same as the extra-credit and honestly didn't even know was taking a quiz for how chill the atmosphere is). The problem lies in the actual layout of the class. The tests are literally just flashing 40 images at your face. They only get about 10 seconds on each image and they ask for stuff like who is the architect, location, name of building, etc. Seems easy enough until you realize each test is on 6 chapters. Each chapter has 10-15 buildings. Each building has 3-10 different pictures, some (almost all) looking very identical to others. Not only this, but you have to take into account culture, religion, structure, etc. It then becomes this super massive memory game. I didn't feel like I was learning about architectural history, just a flashcard game of guess that building. Basically just way too much content to memorize with too many pictures that look exactly the same. Worst part is half of the test is written response. So if you can't remember that really long European place and building; you're fucked. Basically, Yip is an alright guy. A bit boring, but the subject itself is super hard to teach. I think the class itself is poorly organized or the way it is tested is poor. I don't recommend this for anyone wanting to take a GE. You will just be surrounding by architecture majors doing their projects and other kids taking it as a GE slowly falling asleep.

If I could sever one of my own limbs in order to get out of having to take the arch history series, I'd do it.

Professor Yip is a very interesting person and tries to make the lectures interesting as well, but in that dark lecture hall and his monotone voice, one can't help but fall asleep. The subject itself contributes to that as well, but overall Professor Yip presents the material very clearly and easy to understand.

Knows the information well but is very monotone and boring. In between he spouts off his leftist views on war, the economy, etc...Laughs at himself quite often and if he tells jokes they are pathetic. Study the slide names and pictures as well as a little info about them and it will be easy.

yip was very weird. he would go off on tangents about material that wasnt on the tests. basically if you only listen to the stuff he says directly about the buildings, you might do okay. overall, this class sucked becuase it was all about memorization of hundreds of buildings that are slightly different from one another in the same architectural eras. i wouldnt recommend taking this class unless you have to.

I'd heard about Yip going off on tangents and not really spending class time on the material. He does get off track, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. There is definitely a lot of material to cover and the class is graded mostly on memorization, so it is annoying when class starts late, gets off topic, and has breaks that are longer than needed. The most annoying thing was that Yip asked us to do an essay question quiz with just about 1 minute left in the class period (if that). He did say that he'd simplify the prompt when everyone cried out that there wasn't time. I was fortunate not to have a class immediately afterward, so I could take a few minutes. I wonder what the class in the room after us thought about us taking the ten minutes after the hour to finish the quiz. I'd avoid having commitments that require you to get out of Yip's class on time...he doesn't seem to have a strong sense of timeliness. If you have to take Arch Hist, you're pretty much stuck, so plan accordingly.

I thought Yip's lectures in 218 were infintely more interesting than the ones I slept through in 217. If you've taken architectural history before, quit reading. You already know what to expect. But if you're considering taking this as a GE, this class is lots of dry lecturing with fairly difficult tests. Luckily, the curve will knock your grade up a bit, which helps.

Can't stop coughing every few seconds...mumbles...only one that laughs at his jokes. Bring COFFEE

This poor guy has not been able to clear his throat since 2003. What is the problem? I wonder how Yip even functions in every day society. Choi is very intelligent however and will hopefully teach all of the lectures soon.

I did really well in this class and he was the worst teacher I have ever seen. Not only did he mumble but he lectured in tangents. Rarely was it clear what he wanted you to remember. He is not fit to be a professor of a university. Choi was a great teacher, extremely on track and knowledgeable. I once asked yip a question and he gave me the most pompous, insufficient response I've ever heard from a teacher. Although you don't have a choice, beware of being frustrated half of the lectures of 218. Oh, don't read the book, it is more wordy, pretentious and pointless than yip's lectures.

I did really well in this class and he was the best teacher I have ever seen. Not only did he mumble but he lectured in tangents, this is good thing. always was it clear what he wanted you to remember. He is fit to be a professor of a university. Choi was a bad teacher, extremely off track and not knowledgeable. I once asked choi a question and he gave me the most pompous, insufficient response I've ever heard from a teacher. Although you don't have a choice, beware of not being frustrated half of the lectures of 217. Oh, read the book, it is fabulous just like yip's lectures.Ok, first of all, take this as a general ed class!! It was the only class I could fit in my schedule and so i took it for a C3 requiremet. best choice of my life!! You are surrounded by Arch students who actually care and you will feel like a smart piece of shit! I got a A, basically because i love this class.

regarding the comment below... are you mad?! i hope you are joking, because what you have written is not only incomprehensible, but completely and utterly counterfactual. I have taken both 217 and 218 with co-teaching professors yip and choi, and it's been the same old story both times: yip is a horrible professor, and choi is absolutely wonderful. whereas choi presents the material in a clear and organized fashion, yip doesn't even present the material at all! he will stay on the same meaningless slide of a map of asia for 15 minutes (no exaggeration), and by the time you actually tune back into his monotoned mumbles after the 15 minutes has gone by, he is talking about something completely irrelevant like some random story about his grandmother-- who cares!!! he spends 90% of lecture time talking about his personal life, chortling at his own stupid jokes, and aluding to things that have absolutely nothing to do with architectural history. they wonder why people do so badly on the exams... maybe because yip couldn't teach if his life depended on it. do not take this class for a GE! (unless by some miracle, choi is the only one teaching it. then i would say it's worthwhile) and if you are stuck taking it-- don't bother buying the book. all exam questions come from lectures... brace yourself!!!

I really liked this professor. I could tell that I was the only one though. He tells really random jokes and makes fun of famous people a lot. He really knows what he is talking about though. I did really well because I thought he was really funny and looked forward to going to this class. He does know his stuff. All his history is from memory, he doesn't use notes or anything. The class is 2 midterms and a cumulative final. Do not take this class if you are bad at memorizing. There are a lot of pictures and essays that you have to write. Seriously though Yip is pretty cool.

He is a pretty funny guy. I thought his lectures were pretty entertaining but most people don't think so haha.. He does not have a lot of words on the slides so just take a laptop to take notes and make sure you write down everything just in case. Study ahead of time because there is a lot of information covered in this class!

Professor Yip is actually a really good professor. Sure he mumbles sometimes, but overall he's a really good professor who knows what he's talking about, and seems like he's actually excited to be there teaching it to us, in his own way. He really does know the material, and he tells some pretty amusing jokes. Overall, the positives completely outweigh the negatives when it comes to Yip.

sooo funny

This class is TERRIBLE. Definitely do not take it if you don't have to!! I put in an insane amount of hours into studying, so if you're considering this as a GE, run away now! I never went to class after the first midterm because pretty much all the material on the tests is taken straight out from the slideshows he posts online. This class is all about memorization..so if you're bad at memorizing things, good luck

If you were like me and decided to take this class as a fine art GE, just don't do it. It's not worth it. The class is very difficult, and Yip doesn't do anything to help that. He's an okay teacher, but he sounds like he just reads a boring architecture textbook to you for two hours. The tests are very difficult if you don't properly study for them and memorize every single building and all the details about it.

Yip is alright, could be better. He's an odd person. He'll just start laughing in the middle of his lecture for no particular reason. Sort of a rambler but eventually the necessary information comes out, just have to listen for it. His slides are mainly pictures, not too helpful if you don't go to lectures. He's a nice guy, just odd. I wouldn't not take him, just not a preference.

yip is great if you like death, rape, incest, and all other dark themes. That is at least what I remember most.

THIS MAN. THIS MAN I SWEAR. STOP COUGHING AND TELLING THESE DAMN STUPID JOKES THAT ARE B- AT BEST. but his tests are easy tho

great personality, beautiful speaking voice, and hilarious jokes. clear enunciation, incredibly easy to understand, efficiently goes through slides and makes sure everyone understands before moving on, finishes the lectures on time. a gentle soul, cute af, fashionable. everything he says will be on the exam. good luck not falling in love. jk

a breath of fresh air...

Arch 219 has been the most frustrating and unrewarding class I've taken in my four years at Cal Poly. Taking this class in my last quarter here has been a complete nightmare. The subject is slightly interesting, but what will really put you off about this class is the insane amount of information you're supposed to know for the tests. There are 3 exams: The first on is worth 26% of your grade and is 52 questions, and the second 2 are worth 37% and have 74 questions. Every class session Yip goes through a power point presentation with more than 50 slides on it. The first test is on the first 5 lectures (roughly 250 slides of information), the second test is on the next 6 lectures (300 slides of information), and the third exam is cumulative AND has some new material (850 power point slides). You can study until your brain is saturated, but there is no way you will remember everything. His tests are hard, and you have to remember the smallest details if you want to pull off a good grade. He is completely unsympathetic towards the lives of college students and doesn't really understand or care that we have other classes and activities - we can't sit and study 900 architecture slides all day every day. A few weeks before the final, someone in class asked him if there was a way we could have a study guide since there's so much information, and he literally said "Just review your notes. The power point slides are all online. If you were paying attention you should be fine." I would never recommend this class to anyone for any reason. Avoid it at all costs, especially if you're a senior and you're looking for an easy GE fulfillment.

Yip is an average professor. His throat clearing is a little annoying at first, but after a few classes you kind of tune it out and stop noticing. Three tests, pretty straightforward, if you look back over each lecture (about 6 lectures per exam) you should be good. He may be boring to listen to, but he does know what he is talking about, and the material is sometimes fairly interesting. I put in only moderate amounts of effort and got an A- (I'm not even an Arch major, just took this class as the only other option to theater to fulfill a GE) so if you have no other options its not too terrible. Nothing to jump at however, I would certainly search for other options first.

I took Arch 219 for a GE, and let me first say there are much easier less painful GE's you can take for this class. However, I was kind of interested in knowing some of the buildings and stuff someday for when I travel. We even had a whole section on Paris and stuff like that. Anyways, my class was half taught by Yip, half taught by Choi even though it only says one of them on your student center. Yip is painful. He cringely laughs when the class is dead silent about things like the Holocaust while the whole class stares at him. I went to all of the classes and could not pay attention to his monotone voice no matter how hard I tried.

He's a nice guy, but you always end up falling asleep

Prof. Yip is a nice person and has a lot of knowledge of history in general, BUT he does not organize or deliver course material appropriately for test preparation. He usually takes up valuable time in the first 20 min.s to give unrelated information, then rushes (somewhat) to catch up and review all slides--this still usually takes about 15 minutes after the class hour to complete. He speaks in dry monotonous voice and does not enphasis key points for tests. He does not reinforce previous lecture points. And he tends to be uncomfortable, clearing his throat constantly and trying to present humor as a way to break the monotony--though he seems to be the only one laughing at his jokes. Overall, I believe him to be a nice person and have a great knowledge of history, however, I would not recommend him as an instructor to learn from--you have a better chance of learning pertenant information through strict reading, while avoiding unrelated, confusing topics from his lectures.

Mr. Yip definitly cares about his students, but just can't seem to teach a lecture class well. He wastes at least the first half of every lecture with pointless jokes and then tests us on pointless trivia he crams into the last 10 minutes of class when he runs through half his slide carousel, trying to point with his laser pointer which never seems to work either.

this class sucks...do not take this class unless you have to ....its too hard, too boring and a waste of time!!!! I would rather watch bass fishing on tv than listen to yip or gilberti lecture about boring ass buildings...

Not only did he mumble, he told pointless jokes in the beginig of class that cost us to stay late because he never had enough time. In the begining of the lecture he would read the print out from the web site, which took about 20 minutes. He would then cover everything he read in the slides. Make sure you drink coffee before his lecture will be put to sleep. He told our lecture class of about 200 that he could not speak up because he can't. Make sure you sit in the front row because you won't be able to hear anything. He screwed up our mudterm because we were told that it was suppost to go up to a certain lecture and he added another one without telling us. It was even listed on the internet and he put questions that were not suppost to be there. He is not very confident in his teaching.

Two faults. Always coughing into the mic, and monotonous tone.

This teacher is knowledgeable, but does not know how to present information. He has terrible timing, mainly due to the fact that he starts late due to failure to set up equipment and loads of irrelevant information. Every single lecture he rushes through the material at the end because he spends too much time at the beginning. The class runs over the allotted time, making me late to my next class. Also if you take this class, do not get the book because it is a waste of money and does not help you

Sitting through Yip's lectures is like being in a dream. During one lecture, I won the world series with a homerun in the bottom of the ninth. During another lecture I could fly like a bird. In yet another lecture, I got to have sex with all the Sports Illustrated swim suit models. Oh wait. Those were dreams. I was asleep.

Both Yip and Giberti are not very exciting teachers to listen to, especially for two hours. Yip seems to talk to himself more than the class and make jokes that i think only he gets. So rediculous that you almost laugh. Giberti is somewhat of a dick. He quiets the class if there is any talking like we're in elementary school. As for the class, it's not bad, you don't even have to attend the lectures. After our first test, i stopped going to class. Just print out the flashcards, write down the important bold information from the class website and study them for 2-3 days before the class and you'll get an A or B. There are two reports that are very easy as well. I missed an A in the class by only a few points.

Arch 320 is a total cake walk compared to the 17,18,19 series he also teaches. There are NO TESTS and NO MEMORIZING slides in 320. Your entire grade is based off of 3 short essays. AS a matter of fact, the last essay in the Fall 01 section was on contemporary global politics and had NOTHING to do with Asia, architecture, or history. It was just Yip indulging one of his tangents; he had us read a photocopied section out of a book he liked, and write a two page "reaction" to it.

Well, the only thing to say is that this qtr was a waste of time. It is just soooooooo slow + pointless jokes that only he laughs at + no feedback + no motivation = disappointing qtr. I don't know how many times I wanted to just get up and get the hell out. You're basically on your own on this one, which isn't bad of course, its something we should all try...but just don't do it with this guy, might as well go with Lange. We spent about 5 weeks analysing the site, then ONE week to design a 100,000 sq. foot library! Come on now, oh wait.. did I mention he changed it at the last possible second to 150,000! Oh wait, one more time.. 200,000 now... sheesh, this guy can't make up his mind. He doesn't like studios that design with Form first then plans, so if you do that... don't take this guy. He is very practical, which is cool and all, but this is schoool, this is the time to experiment, we got a whole lifetime to fine tune our skills. Ay ya! Don't even take him if you're last, you'll regret it. I gave him a chance... big mistake on my part, don't do the same now ok!? As for arch history, well.. you got no choice there, haha. Don is cool though, glad he is here.

Trying to teach design in an arch. history format just doesn't work, and I guess he just couldn't get that through his head. The class had no clear cut plan of attack for the project, dates and milestones were non-existent except for a poorly timed midquarter review, the program was never set in stone, and feedback was awful and useless. I've never felt so unmotivated in my life. I would agree, Lange would be a better choice if you want to explore your own creativity, because this guy is just a waste of time. Five weeks to analyze a site and one week to prepare a base design; ridiculous. Instead of helpful feedback based on specifics in design, all we got was "what does the building want to be?" what a gyp.

A lot better than I expected, the project was fun. He didn't really help me, but my fellow students did. As a design professor, try to avoid him.

Chris Yip is a kind-hearted, jovial sort of person. He has a bizarre, not-so-funny sense of humor. He

Most boring and useless class if taken with Yip. Wrote three papers, one on three influential architects, one comparing two books you read throughout the quarter, and one combining the first two papers into one. Hard to skip because he takes attendance, but those were always the most boring 4 hours of the week. If you don't want to do much, go ahead and take this class with him, just be prepared to not learn much.

He's a history professor, not a design teacher. This was the worst design studio I've ever had in my 4 years here at Cal Poly. Usually labs are packed with 16-20 students, but in Yip's lab, there were only 13 of us and about 5 to 8 people showing up to scheduled class time. He says that 4th year should be mostly independent work with little teacher supervision and "holding hands" teaching, but thats what he did all quarter and during our crits, other jury members would say this was the worst projects they've ever seen and then he blames us for not being independent and jumping ahead in our projects. He was the one that was holding us back from really doing a good project, instead, we were stuck doing site analysis and diagramming work and giving us only a week to do design work for our mid quarter review. I now know why 4th year sucks, this is the year that the left over teachers that aren't designers teaches studio. I only hope I get over this quarter and do a great 5th year project, which is truely an independent project.